Helen Murray Free (born February 20, 1923, Pittsburgh, PA) is a retired American chemist and educator.
She received a B.S.
with honors in Chemistry from The College of Wooster in 1944 and an M.A.
in management from Central Michigan University in 1978.
In 1947 she married Alfred Free, a fellow researcher in urinalysis.
She is most known for revolutionizing many self-testing systems for diabetes and other diseases while working at Miles Laboratories, which is now Ascensia Diabetes Care.
The pioneering of the dip-and-read strips, which are still used to this day, allowed for testing to be more convenient and efficient, enabling doctors and patients to no longer be reliant on laboratories for results.